Chapter 108

On the weekend, Erya went back home. She had been doing intensive training recently and had gotten quite tanned.

Zhen Zhen pinched Erya's arm, "Wow, your muscles are well-trained, and the flesh is quite tight. You really look a bit like a diver."

Meng Xi grinned. She had dark skin and white teeth. When she smiled, her fine teeth were exposed, and she looked particularly sunny.

Meng Xi hugged Zhen Zhen very close, "Grandma, I miss you so much."

Zhen Zhen held Erya in her arms, rubbing and kneading her for a long time, "Grandma misses you so much. When you're not around, I can't eat well and can't sleep well. When I see watermelon, I remember that Erya likes to eat watermelon. When I see peach, I remember that Erya eats peach. When I see melon seeds, I remember that Erya likes to eat melon seeds."

Meng Xi pouted, "You have five grandchildren, and I'm one less. I think you should be very happy."

"How could that be possible! No matter how good they are, they can't replace you! Grandma raised you from a small piece of meat to where you are now. Is it easy? I miss you so much when I don't see you for even one day."

Meng Xi finally felt better. He hugged Zhen Zhen's neck and clung to her.

Meng Nan stood by with his brother and sister, looking at the two of them expressionlessly.

"Is it enough? Arya! How long have you been holding me? Aren't you hot?"

“Not hot.”

"You're not hot, but grandma is. Besides, how long have we not seen each other? You should at least tell us how you are doing in the swimming team now." Sanwa muttered.

After Meng Nan had sucked enough milk, he lay on Zhen Zhen’s neck and rubbed it for a while, then he took Xiao Wu’s hand and walked out.

Zhou Zhicheng said that the swimming team would go home once a month, but in fact it was impossible to do so. Meng Nan had been in training for almost three months. Jiao Huilan had missed her daughter for a long time. When she saw her daughter coming home, she rode her bike to Meng Daguo's pig farm to see if there was any good pork or pork elbows left.

Erya tends to grind her teeth when she sleeps, so Jiao Huilan wants to stew some soybean pig's tail for her to eat. The farmers say that if you eat the pig's tail while standing at the door, you won't grind your teeth.

Jiao Huilan prepared a whole table of dishes as it was almost Chinese New Year. Erya was usually in the swimming team and her eating habits were controlled, but she let go and had a big meal when the coach was away.

After dinner, she held her bulging belly and said happily:

"Grandma, I'm really good at diving! Coach Zhou said I'm the most talented."

"Really?" Zhen Zhen was happy for her granddaughter. "Not only are you talented, you're also hardworking. Grandma heard from Coach Zhou that you train very hard and study the movements every day when you return to the dormitory."

Meng Xi smiled shyly, "If you're going to do something, do it to the best of your ability!"

“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

"Not much. I just like to compete for first place. No one will pay attention to the second place. Everyone's eyes will only be on the champion."

Zhen Zhen didn't know who this personality was like, but athletes should also have the spirit of never giving up.

"Do you usually have leg cramps? Knee pain?"

"No, grandma, when I participate in the Olympics, I will definitely bring back a championship medal and make you happy!"

Zhen Zhen was so happy that he said, "Okay, I'll wait for my Arya to win the Olympic championship!"

Zhen Zhen prepared two down jackets, several underwear for Meng Xi, a set of winter pajamas, and two sets of new autumn clothes and trousers.

The swimming team's conditions are not good. They have to train in such a cold winter. Zhen Zhen is really worried that Erya will get frozen.

Meng Xi sat on Zhen Zhen's lap again, looking greasy and crooked. Meng Daguo was a little jealous, thinking that this girl had forgotten her biological father now that she had a grandmother.

Meng Daguo and Jiao Huilan are going to go out of town to investigate the market recently. If Focus Women's Wear wants to open branches, they have to focus on several big cities. There is not much time left before the New Year, so they will try their best to rent more stores and open more than ten stores, so as to open all of them before the Spring Festival Gala.

Meng Xi stayed at home for two days and only spent half a day with his parents. When he woke up the next day, the two of them boarded a train to Beijing.

Meng Xi rolled around on the bed, "Grandma, what if I don't win the Olympic gold medal?"

"What should I do?" Zhen Zhen looked back at her while packing his suitcases. "If I can't win the Olympic gold medal, I'll have to go home and become a rich second-generation and inherit the family business!"

Zhen Zhen explained to the children what a "rich second generation" meant, and Meng Xi was coaxed into giggling, "Going home to eat and wait for death? That's too miserable!"

"You can't be that miserable! Our family is so poor that the only thing left is money. Being a rich second-generation kid is so boring. It's better to be an Olympic champion."

Meng Xi is training with the swimming team. Her coach is very strict with her. It would be a lie to say that she doesn't feel any pressure. Going home is like a vacation. She wants to find support from her family.

Zhen Zhen's words made her let down her guard for some unknown reason.

"Grandma, if I don't do well and go home, how much property can I get?"

Zhen Zhen seemed to be thinking, "It's not much, a few million is still worth it, right?"

Meng Xi's eyes widened. He had no idea about money, but when he saw Zhen Zhen taking out gold bricks, jade bracelets, copper coins and porcelain from the box, he felt that several million was a huge sum of money.

"Grandma, where did all this come from? Why didn't I see it before?"

Zhen Zhen sighed. These were all things she had just received from others. The last time she went to Beijing, she collected some antiques. She usually asked Tan Wenyin to help her keep an eye out and buy good things when she came across them.

Antiques and cultural relics are really cheap these days! You can buy cultural relics that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the future for just a few hundred dollars.

Zhen Zhen doesn't know how to look. There are quite a few fake items among these things, but these things are worthless. If you buy more, you will always buy the authentic ones.

The main feature is the large quantity and fullness.

As for the gold bricks, they were all brought back by Meng Hua from Gangcheng. Now he had gold mines in his hands, and knowing that his mother liked gold, he would secretly bring some back every now and then. Zhen Zhen now had more than a dozen gold bricks on hand.

If these antique golds were put into later generations, they could easily be sold for tens of billions.

Zhen Zhen packed up the things and put them in the space while Erya was away.

After Jiao Huilan left, Su Xiu was in charge of the Focus Women's Wear business. It wasn't that Zhen Zhen looked down on Tao Aihong, but Tao Aihong would rather lie down than do anything else, and was not someone who could handle things.

Tao Aihong had no objection to this.

Just kidding! No need to work, just lying down and eating melon seeds and watching TV every day, and even getting dividends during the Chinese New Year, where can you find such a good thing!

Isn't it just to look after the store? Whoever wants to look can look, anyway, she doesn't like working.

The next day, Meng Laidi came again. Seeing that no one was at home, he sneaked into Zhen Zhen's room.

Usually this room is locked, and Meng Laidi has never been in. Now that he has entered for the first time, he finds that there are not many pieces of furniture in the room, but everything is of fine quality. There is also a desk lamp and a leather-bound notebook on the desk, which looks quite cultured.

Meng Laidi flipped through the book and was about to put it back when he saw a few words written on the back of the book:

Brain Relaxation Formula: Black XX, Ginseng, Wolfberry...

Meng Laidi's eyes widened. She never thought her aunt could be so stupid as to write the recipe of Nao Qingsong casually in a notebook!

God is watching over us, and she finally stole it.

Meng Laidi copied these words on his palm and put the notebook back. Tao Aihong went to the toilet and came out, and saw Meng Laidi walking out stealthily.

"Meng Laidi, what are you doing?" Tao Aihong shouted.

Meng Lai Di was so scared that he trembled, "I didn't do anything! I just came to see my aunt and grandma."

Tao Aihong walked around her. Meng Laidi was pregnant and afraid of the heat, so she was still wearing light clothes in autumn. It seemed that she was not hiding anything, but her behavior was really suspicious.

Although Tao Aihong likes to play cricket hunting with her grandmother-in-law, she is not stupid. Her grandmother-in-law's room is locked every day, and today is one of the rare days when the door is not locked, so Meng Laidi sneaks in.

If the money was stolen by her, who would Tao Aihong go to for justice? After all, her mother-in-law's money was her money. If Meng Laidi harmed her interests, she would never forgive him!

Meng Laidi felt guilty and was afraid that she would notice something was wrong, so he covered his stomach and cried out in pain, then pretended to walk with his back bent.

When Zhen Zhen came back, Tao Aihong told her about this. Zhen Zhen opened the notebook and found that the hair in the notebook had fallen out.

The fish took the bait. Zhen Zhen smiled, put the notebook away, and pretended not to care: "It's okay, a little money is missing, it's not a big deal."

Tao Aihong almost jumped up, "I said there was something wrong with Meng Laidi! How dare she steal your money? How much did she steal? I'm going to ride my bike to the Shen family to ask for it!"

"Not much," Zhen Zhen wanted to teach her a lesson, "You know she's not a good person, so don't bring her home if there's nothing wrong."

"I didn't bring it. She ran in by herself."

"Okay, I have something for you to do." Zhen Zhen had just returned from a meeting in the county. In order to help the poor, Xu Wei planned to liberalize the management of various industries. Farmers in the county who raised more than 20 pigs would receive subsidies. The more pigs they raised, the more subsidies they would receive. "Go call Eryong back."

Tao Aihong hurried to the food factory and brought Meng Eryong back with her. Zhen Zhen told them the county's decision.

"In other words, our county is allowing pig farming?" Meng Eryong was quite excited. Pig farming is a profitable business, but they have been doing it secretly in the mountains and it is difficult to expand the scale. If the county allows pig farming, they can openly build factories and introduce pig breeds.

In the past, Meng Daguo's pig farm only raised ordinary pig breeds, but now everyone outside is raising Yorkshire pigs. Zhen Zhen wants to ask Meng Eryong to go to other places to introduce pig breeds.

Meng Eryong took the lead and said, "Mom, don't you need to discuss this with Big Brother?"

"There's no way to discuss it. I don't even know where your brother is."

"Are you a little anxious?"

Introducing pig breeds and crossbreeding them with local large white pigs to develop new pig breeds can increase production and improve meat quality.

Zhen Zhen was thinking that the New Year was coming soon and the county had liberalized pig breeding, so the scale of the pig farm could be expanded this year. "You go to other places to introduce new breeds, and Aihong can take Lao Yu from the pig farm to the countryside to collect some half-grown pigs. We can raise them before the New Year and slaughter them."

Tao Aihong complained that the pig farm was dirty and the truck that carried the pigs smelled bad, but she didn't dare to talk back. Besides, if the pig farm made money, she would get a bigger share.

After the county issued the document, Li Decheng came here by bike.

Zhen Zhen poured him a cup of brown sugar water. Li Decheng took a sip before telling him about the village's plan to expand.

“Expanding in size is a good thing.”

Li Decheng not only wants to expand the area of ​​saffron and medicinal herbs cultivation, but also wants to encourage everyone to grow mushrooms.

"Mushrooms?" Zhen Zhen was a little surprised. "Why did you think of growing mushrooms?"

"The commune introduced mushroom strains from Maqiao, Shanghai. If the villages want to grow mushrooms, the commune can send technicians to give guidance. I thought that growing mushrooms doesn't cost much. Each family can build a mushroom house and spray water every day. It doesn't take much effort. Some families have a lot of labor, and when it's not the busy farming season, some people are idle at home. When people are idle, they are prone to cause trouble. I just want to find something for them to do so that they don't cause trouble for me."

Zhen Zhen smiled, "It's not easy for you either."

"So do you think growing mushrooms is possible?"

"It can be done. The current purchase price of mushrooms is high, so growing mushrooms will definitely be profitable. Even if the market cools down in a few years, we will have made money, right?"

The two talked about raising pigs again.

Li Decheng hesitated, "I heard that Daguo has been secretly raising pigs in the mountains. Is that true?"

Now that the policy has been relaxed, Zhen Zhen did not hide the fact, "Yes, I did."

"How many years?"

"Only a few years."

Li Decheng really admires her. She is always ahead of others in everything. No wonder she can make so much money.

"We in the village also want to raise pigs. Can we visit Daguo's pig farm and learn from Daguo's experience?"

Zhen Zhen smiled and did not refuse, "We are all family, how can I say no?"

Li Decheng was really grateful to her. Although raising pigs may seem simple, it requires skills and techniques to do it on a large scale! Too many pigs can easily cause them to get sick, and the market conditions can also fluctuate. The villagers worked hard for a year, but in the end, the pork meat was too cheap to sell, and they lost money. Li Decheng couldn't explain to the villagers.

"As long as the pigs are good, we can buy all the pigs from our farm."

Li Decheng was delighted by her assurance. "Our village depends on you alone! Without you, we can't even afford to live in a thatched hut, let alone a building."

Zhen Zhen smiled and said, "There are many pigs in the village, and our pig farm can also make money from the harvest. It's a win-win for everyone."

"There are so many pig farmers in the county, whose pigs can you not accept? I know in my heart that you want to help us so that everyone can get rich. When you drink water, you should remember the person who dug the well. Our village will never forget your kindness."

Don't worry about what you have given. Zhen Zhen will not gamble on other people's conscience. She just has some feelings for the villagers of Batou Village and wants to give them a hand.

With Zhen Zhen's help, the scale of pig farming in Batou Village has expanded a lot. Raising pigs is not like making clothes. You have to be busy every day. You just need to prepare three meals a day for the pigs. It doesn't take much effort. After all, this is just extra income.

This time, Meng Eryong brought back not only breeding pigs, but also a new feed formula.

"After making a pulp with water peanuts, water hyacinth and water lotus, add feed and yeast, seal it for four days and feed it to pigs. This will make the pigs grow fat faster and at a lower cost."

Zhen Zhen smiled and said, "It's better to learn until old age or live until old age."

The collective house-building activity in Batou Village caused quite a stir. Hundreds of households in the village built houses together, which would be scary enough anywhere, not to mention that they were all building buildings.

When Zhen Zhen accompanied Li Decheng to the county to get a ticket for bricks and cement, the county was also shocked. However, Xu Wei had just taken office, and during his term, a village with one million yuan per household appeared in the county, and all the residents lived in small Western-style houses. What a great honor!

Xu Wei was not stupid. Not only did he issue an approval note, he also asked reporters to follow up with interviews and wrote about Batou Village as a model of getting rich in the newspapers so that everyone in the county could see it.

Originally, the villagers didn't want to make such a big fuss. After all, the public security is bad these days, and robberies and murders happen from time to time. If the commotion gets out of hand, what will happen if Batou Village is targeted by bandits?

But the county has sent people over, so we can't keep a low profile even if we want to.

In order to build the house as soon as possible, Li Decheng had to find bricklayers and carpenters from other villages to build the house one by one.

With the help of people from other villages, the progress of building houses in the village has been much faster.

The news spread quickly, and people from nearby villages often came by on their bikes to see what was happening. They couldn't believe that the entire population of Batou Village, which had been so poor that they could barely afford to eat, could live in small Western-style buildings.

But the reality cannot be faked.

The houses look stylish and beautiful, with lots of glass and a terrace on the roof. Every household has a well at the door, the yard has a cement floor, and the walls are built very high.

This Batou Village is completely developed!

People from other villages feel bad. They were all equally poor before, but Batou Village became prosperous after two years of hard work. If they learn from Batou Village to grow peppers and medicinal herbs, will they be the ones building houses next year?

Before the Chinese New Year, all the houses in Batou Village were built. When Zhen Zhen rode his bicycle back to take a look, he was also amazed by the neat and imposing buildings in front of him.

Zhang Cuihua and her group were standing at the door of Gouzi's parents' house. When they saw her and Su Xiu coming back, they shouted:

"Guizhi is back, she must have an idea!"

"What happened?" Zhen Zhen parked his bike and heard about the theft at Gouzi's parents' home. "How much money was stolen?"

"More than 500. Many chickens and ducks died. My dog ​​was also killed by the drug."

Gou Zi's mother didn't feel sorry for anything else but the big yellow dog at home. She brought the dog home to raise. She raised the dog even though people couldn't afford to eat.

In recent years, the conditions at home have improved. The dog has become fat and strong, and its fur is shiny.

Every time Gou Zi Niang went out and came home, the dog would greet her at the entrance of the village.

Gou Zi's mother treated the dog as a family member and was heartbroken to see the dog being poisoned to death.

"Have you reported it to the police?"

"The police came and said no one was killed and no one saw it, so it's difficult to solve the case."

There were no cameras in those days, and many thefts in the countryside were left unsolved. Zhen Zhen thought that Gou Zi's mother was going to admit that she was unlucky, but then he saw Su Xiu squatting down, looking at something.

Su Xiu followed the thief's footprints and walked out, not knowing what she was thinking.

"Can I find someone?"

Zhen Zhen was stunned for a moment, "Can you find it? How can you find it?"

"Footprints," Su Xiu had a good memory and would never forget the footprints she had seen. It happened that it rained a few days ago, and the soil in the village was soft, so wherever she stepped on it, there were footprints. "People can run away, but footprints cannot be erased. I can find the person by following the footprints."

There was a dot on one of the footprints, and Su Xiu guessed that the thief had stepped on a thumbtack on his shoe.